As of October 2024, there are approximately 1.1 billion websites on the internet, with around 252,000 websites built daily. Millions of websites strive to be on the first page of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) and even more so for the coveted number one ranking result. Search Engine Optimization has become a fundamental component for businesses looking to rank higher, drive more traffic to potential customers, and improve site authority. Regarding referring domains vs backlinks, they are sometimes used interchangeably. These distinct elements have unique roles that shape a website’s organic SEO performance.
Referring Domains Vs Backlinks
When it comes to comparing referring domains with backlinks, it’s easy to see why they’d get confused for one another due to their similarities. Both, however, play important and distinctly different roles in creating a stellar backlink profile and successful SEO strategy.
What are Backlinks?
Backlinks serve as endorsements from other websites. In simple terms, they are essentially a hyperlink that connects one website to another. This hyperlink signals to search engines like Google that your content is valuable, relevant, and credible.
In a broader sense, backlinks are links to your content on reputable sites. Ideally, the website that links to your content should be a high-quality site. This link “vouches for” and “endorses” the quality of the information on your site. This “endorsement” is a key factor in what SERPs use to determine rankings as having high-quality backlinks from quality and relevant sources can significantly improve your site’s visibility overall, leading to increases in organic traffic and rankings overall.
- Indexing
Backlinks also play an essential role in another vital aspect of SEO indexing. The more high-quality backlinks your site has, the more search engines will crawl and index your pages. This process is an important component of appearing in search results. Backlinks help discover and crawl your pages by providing additional pathways for search engine bots to follow. Therefore, the more high-quality backlinks you have, the more likely your content is to be crawled and indexed. The result is improved organic impressions.
Even though the number of backlinks you have is important, the quality of those links is what matters most. If your site has too many low-quality or irrelevant links, it can do more harm than good by appearing as “spam” to search engines or even result in penalties. Always ensure that your backlinks come from trusted, reputable sources within your niche or industry.
- Link Equity
In SEO, there is a concept called “Link Equity” that directly impacts how backlinks influence your site authority. Link Equity or “link juice” is the “worth” of the backlink that passes from one site to another.
When a high-authority page links to your site, it gives some of this authority or “link juice” to your page for better rankings. Typically, if a site has a lot of backlinks from a variety of sources, the page will have a higher link equity. This means that the page has more credibility in the eyes of Google and other search engines.
- Referral Traffic
Additionally, backlinks help drive referral traffic. When a user clicks on a link on another site, they are taken directly to your content. This leads to more visitors on your site. This gives you the unique opportunity of connecting with your customer once they land on your site. When the customer lands on your site, you can curate what they first see to make a good impression and encourage them to learn more. You can foster a deeper connection with your customers through the content on your site, which can also help reach a broader audience.
There are several strategies you can utilize to encourage sites to link to your content to acquire backlinks. For example, creating linkable assets and high-quality, shareable content; utilizing social media and other outreach tactics; guest-posting; and reaching out to directories. Combining these options helps create a content strategy that improves organic rankings and boosts your overall SEO efforts.
What is a Referring Domain?
Similar to backlinks, referring domains plays a pivotal role in your site’s authority and SEO profile.
Referring domain links from unique websites signal to search engines that your content is informative, trustworthy, and credible. This means that each unique domain has endorsed your content as credible.
- Diverse Sources
Unlike with backlinks, it’s important to have a variety of distinct sources individually linking to your content instead of multiple links from only one site. Each referring domain only counts once, no matter how many you have. That’s why it’s important to have multiple sources. Search engines place a high value on sites that have referring domains from a diverse range of sites. It shows that your content holds value in multiple contexts.
Additionally, having a strong referring domain profile tells search engines that your site is recognized by reputable sources across different industries and platforms. Having these endorsements helps boost domain authority and improves your backlink profile.
- Quality vs Quantity
Although the quantity and quality of backlinks are important, their importance grows when it comes to referring domains. Because only one link counts per source, having multiple links from many different sources is recommended. The links’ quality, however, matters as authoritative sites carry much more weight than low-quality sources.
For example, if a well known publication or news network links to your site, this will have a better impact than a small, irrelevant blog from a lesser-known source. Therefore, focusing on acquiring backlinks from reputable sources should be part of your SEO strategy. When you have a referring domain link to another site, Google evaluates the credibility, trustworthiness, and relevance of the link.
- Relevance with Your Niche
Consider the relevance of your referring domains. This is something that Google considers when determining the worthiness of the link. When a link is more closely related to a niche, it enhances your authority and strengthens the contextual relationship. It also signals to Google and other search engines that you are an authority within your niche.
In order to acquire referring domains, you should encourage other sites to link to your content. Strategies may include creating link-worthy, informative content, guest blogging, content repurposing, and engaging with social media and other types of outreach. These methods help you create an authoritative backlink, leading to more quality referring domains over time.
The Importance of a Balanced Backlink Profile
Knowing the difference between backlinks and referring domains is vital. Both of these elements work together to create a well-balanced backlink profile.
Backlinks are the individual links that point towards your site. Referring domains are the sites in which those backlinks come from.
Before we explain how backlinks and referring domains impact your site’s SEO performance, learn how Google evaluates a website.
- Link Equity: It is the amount of authority one site passes on to another site when linked. If Google sees that a site with high-authority has linked to your site, it helps boost your authority.
- Trustworthiness and Credibility: If Google sees that your backlink profile has been endorsed by many credible sources, this will signal that your site is a trusted site.
- Relevance: Ensure your links stay within your niche. If you have a bunch of irrelevant links (e.g., an HVAC business linking to a makeup brand’s blog page), Google is less likely to count this towards your credibility. It could even harm your site’s credibility and trustworthiness.
- Natural Growth Patterns: Search Engines typically favor sites that have a natural growth pattern. If Google sees that a site has a huge boom in backlinks and referring domains, it’s more likely to see this as a red flag.
Let’s look at how backlinks and referring domains impact these factors.
Both of these link types work together to create your backlink profile. A backlink profile with a variety of referring domains and high-quality backlinks is essential to getting you ranked higher on Google and improving your authority.
A healthy backlink profile improves your chances of appearing naturally on SERPs. It also helps minimize your risk of getting penalized by Google. Google will sometimes penalize sites that they deem “spammy” or appear to be relying too much on a single source or type of link.
To maintain a healthy backlink profile, there are a few things you should strive to have:
- A Mix of DoFollow and NoFollow links:
DoFollow links are hyperlinks that pass on SEO value (link equity) to the destination site. NoFollow links are another type of hyperlink that includes an (rel=”nofollow”) tag that tells search engines to not pass any SEO value to the linked site and don’t directly impact rankings. They can still help drive traffic and increase visibility. It’s important to have a mix of these to create a more “natural” backlink profile.
- A Focus on High-Quality Over Quantity
Having a balanced profile involves not just how many links you have, but also the quality, relevance and diversity of those links. For example, if an HVAC company focuses on getting links from a popular site within their industry, they could potentially see some benefits from this. However, if that same popular site’s authority starts to diminish over time, this could lead to negative impacts on the HVAC company’s SEO.
If a new startup tech company decides to reach out to tech blogs, new sites relevant to their niche, and other related sources, this can establish a more resilient and balanced profile.
Keep an eye on how many backlinks you have. Consider how many sites those backlinks are coming from. There should be a high number of individual sites and links so that you can create a healthy backlink profile. With a healthy backlink profile, you increase your site’s credibility and potentially get your site higher on SERPs.
Monitoring Your Referring Domains and Backlinks
Monitoring your referring domains and backlinks should always be a part of your SEO strategy. These insights are invaluable for improving your site’s authority and overall SEO health.
Popular tools, such as Ahrefs and SEMrush, are used by thousands of people daily to monitor their metrics. These tools can help you pinpoint the most beneficial backlinks, analyze which domains are linking to your site, and help spot low-quality and spammy backlinks.
It’s recommended to review your data once every two months to ensure you have enough data to work with. If you review it too frequently, it’ll be harder to spot trends and fluctuations, which is easier if you do it every so often. By tracking trends and patterns, you can create a winning SEO strategy by:
- Ensuring your referring domains are diverse
- Finding new opportunities for potential backlinks
- Checking for unlinked mentions and other link opportunities
- Spotting future targets for future links
- Viewing competitor strategies
- Assessing link quality
- Tracking your site’s progress over time
Another thing to keep an eye out for when performing your bimonthly audit is how many backlinks you have. If you see that you have a lot of backlinks but not as many referring domains, you may have a weak backlink profile. You want to avoid having a higher number of backlinks over referring domains as this can sometimes be a red flag. These types of profiles can look like paid linking or a private blog network, which results in a Google penalty.
Depending on the size of your site and the tools you use to keep track of these metrics, it can take a while to gather and process the data. Even though acquiring backlinks and referring domains is a lengthy process, it’s a valuable long-term investment if you are serious about creating a solid SEO strategy.
While both referring domains and backlinks play their own important roles in SEO, they both serve a unique purpose. Backlinks help drive traffic to your site and improve rankings. Referring domains help build site authority, credibility, and trust. When done correctly, they work together to create a strong, diverse, high-quality backlink profile. It’s an excellent way to strengthen your site’s SEO and business performance over time.
